KISS announced their final tour after a 45-year career during their appearance on NBC’s America’s Got Talent on Wednesday, September 19th.
“This is going to be our last tour,” the band said. “It will be the most explosive, biggest show we’ve ever done. People who love us, come to see us. If you’ve never seen us, this is the time. This will be the show!”
The band has not yet revealed tour dates, but their multi-year world tour “End of the Road” is expected to begin in 2019 and a graphic on their official website promises more details soon.
“All that we have built and all that we have conquered over the past four decades could never have happened without the millions of people worldwide who’ve filled clubs, arenas and stadiums over those years,” KISS said in a statement. “This will be the ultimate celebration for those who’ve seen us and a last chance for those who haven’t. KISS Army, we’re saying goodbye on our final tour with our biggest show yet and we’ll go out the same way we came in…unapologetic and unstoppable.”
This isn’t the first time KISS has called it quits. In 2000, Gene Simmons said, “There just aren’t any more mountains to climb. We want to go out in style with the people that put us here, the fans.” However, it turned out to be their final tour featuring all four original members – Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss.
However, just two years later they were back at it. “People change their minds, and in this case that goes along with being a living, thinking person. What one says one day with total commitment may at another time turn out not to be so,” Stanley said in 2002. “Am I doing this for the money or the fans? Both, and let’s not forget I’m doing this for me.”
The current line-up – which consists of Paul Stanley (guitar), Gene Simmons (bass), Tommy Thayer (guitar) and Eric Singer (drums) – has been intact since 2004.
Last February Stanley said that his priorities were now with his family, and that KISS could possibly continue without either or any of its two remaining founding members. After that, they filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to reserve the rights to the phrase “The End of the Road” with regard to “live performances by a musical band.”
Two months later, Stanley revealed that KISS were planning “the biggest tour we’ve done, the biggest show we’ve done,” with January 2019 as the most likely start date. However, he didn’t mention that it would be the last, saying that the trademark was just to make sure that they would own the rights to it when the time came.
KISS is the latest of music icons who have announced final live shows recently, including Elton John, Paul Simon, Ozzy Osbourne and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
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Words by: Valentina Guidi (pictured with the band)
He discovered the gem when he was 12 years old and still has it now, claiming it to be why he fell in love with music. He likes to play disc golf when he's not writing about music. He is a one-of-a-kind individual who is always the first to bust out his air guitar on the dance-floor.
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